The invention relates to a building structure for use in the construction of concrete buildings, and a method of utilization of the building structure to construct concrete buildings having improved properties over conventional buildings, in a simple and inexpensive manner. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,982,368 a building system was disclosed for the first time that allowed practical, rapid, inexpensive construction of concrete buildings. In that patent, a number of hollow core members were arranged vertically in a generally self-supporting arrangement, lathing was applied to either exterior face of the core member, and cementitious material sprayed thereon to provide the final construction. It is the primary object of the present invention to provide a resulting structure having all of the advantages of a structure constructed in accordance with the teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 3,982,368 that has structural units that are more susceptible to factory manufacture when particularly good thermal insulating qualities of the building to be constructed are desired. While the core members of U.S. Pat. No. 3,982,368 may have foam disposed in the hollow vertical cavities thereof, such structures do not necessarily lend themselves to ready factory manufacture of such members while retaining ease of assembly in the field. According to the present invention, a building structure is provided that includes a pair of exterior quadrate panels formed of stiff lightweight relatively inexpensive material (such as cardboard) and an interior quadrate panel of insulating material having a generally foam structure (i.e. polystyrene foam or polyurethane foam), of generally the same width and length as each of the exterior panels. The panels are glued or otherwise attached together, and the exterior panels have tab portions along a first edge thereof extending past the termination of the interior panel, and at least one of the exterior panels has a tab portion along a second edge thereof extending past the termination of the interior panel, the second edge being perpendicular to the first edge. The tab portions along the first edge are adapted to be attached to vertical and horizontal ledge portions of a base on which the building is to be constructed, and the tab portions along the second edge interlock with adjacent panels to provide a self-supporting horizontally impenetrable barrier.
For ease of shipment and to provide greater flexibility, preferably tab portions are formed along all edges of the exterior panels, and grooves are formed in the interior panel along all the edges thereof, the exterior tabs being foldable over so that they can be inserted in the grooves so that no exterior tab portions are provided during shipping. An interior cardboard panel can be provided between two interior form panels, with the grooves formed along the perimeter of the interior cardboard panel.
According to the method of the present invention, a plurality of the quadrate structures according to the invention are stood in place so that they extend vertically with tab portions provided along the bottom thereof. The bottom tab portions are affixed to the horizontal and vertical ledge portions of the base, as by gluing or nailing, and the length portions of the structures are brought into abutting engagement with each other to provide a continuous self-supporting wall structure providing a horizontally impenetrable barrier. Reticulated sheets of metal reinforcing material are attached to the opposing exterior faces of the wall structure, and cementitious material is sprayed onto the opposing exterior faces to ultimately form a wall having a pair of reinforced cementitious material wall slabs spaced by a wall structure of cardboard and foam, with no cementitious material extending between the cementitious material wall slabs.
The primary object, and other objects of the invention, will become clear from an inspection of the detailed description of the invention, and from the dependent claims.